Today we’ll cover a nutrition coaching strategy that can dissolve your resistance to change. Once you are tethered by less resistance, you can be freer to to let your old habits go and forge the new ones you need to achieve your goals. Doesn’t that sound good? Let’s go.

Fact: that everything you eat is your own choice. Take responsibility.

That’s a two edged sword, my friends. On one hand, that means you have chosen to eat the things that got you to the body you have right now. If you aren’t happy with your body, that realization can cause some blunt force trauma to the ego. But on the other hand – the fact that you have the unencumbered, absolutely final say in what you eat is liberating. No one will pin you down and force Doritos down your gullet. You have the power to choose what and how much you eat, and with the right choices you can change your body.

Those may seem obvious, but we often don’t accept responsibility for our food choices. Sometimes we want to give our power away. We can blame others, or slough the responsibility from our shoulders with an excuse along the lines of “I had to eat _______, it’s all that was available there/I was starving/I didn’t have time to eat lunch“, etc. The truth is, you had the option to not eat _____, to make time for a real meal, or to bring food with you and not rely on someone else to provide food for you. Accepting responsibility for every bite that goes in your mouth is a big step forward. On to the next big idea:

You can eat anything you want. Anything.

Are you attempting to lose weight by declaring certain foods as off-limits, things like candy, fried foods, or cookies? Or do you tell yourself you “should not” or “must not” eat them? You’ll want to rethink that.

By restricting yourself, you will ignite your natural, inborn resistance in two ways. That’s like adding a headwind and dragging a parachute on an already uphill journey; who needs that?

Eating a cookie on occasion does not make someone overweight. What makes someone overeat cookies, not stopping at one or two but get caught in a slippery slope of a dozen, several times a week? Restriction. Restrict anything and you create an environment of scarcity in your mind. That’s Economics 101. A commodity which is scarce becomes more valuable. So now the forbidden item looks even better to you. You might think about it more often, put in on a pedestal in your mind, associating it with fun times and joy and love and relaxation… You might even envy those who “can” eat the forbidden foodstuff.

In addition to inflating the perceived value of the forbidden food, there’s a little rebellious streak in all of us. Even you. You may not think of yourself as the rebellious type, but it’s innate to push back a little at rules. Even if you are a lifetime people-pleaser who actually drives the speed limit, and you DID clean your room when your parents demanded that you do so, your brain gets a reward from breaking a rule. It’s invigorating, exhilarating even, to break a rule, even if it’s your own. To your brain, it feels oh so good to be a little bad. Restaurant menus use descriptions like sinfully delicious cheesecake…. because it appeals to that part of your mind to be a little naughty and rebellious.

So now you’ve doubled the prize of eating the forbidden food: it’s built up in your mind to be the Best Stuff Ever and it makes you feel a little badass for doing it. I hope you see where this is going: A restrictive mindset will not only make you fixate on and eventually eat the very items you’re trying to reduce, but when you do eat them, you’re likely to go headfirst into a massive quantity. Because after all, it’s rare and valuable and you won’t allow yourself to have it again for a long long time so you better get a lot in…

If you’ve ever had an experience with binge eating, recall it. Did it follow a time period of restriction or sticking to a very regimented diet? For many people, it does. The more drastic the restriction, the more binge-triggering it is. And the worst thing we can do after a binge is the most common response: following it up with another period of restriction to “make up for it”. If you’d like to break this cycle, it is a worthy challenge to not view any food as off limits.

What’s the alternative if nothing is off limits? What would keep me from eating junk all day?

When you're making a decision, keep the action and it's outcomes together. It's a package deal. Junk food all day means happy sweet tooth but tighter pants and increased risk for chronic disease and overweight. You know this.

If eating junk all day matches your values, then you really will want to eat junk all day, and there's no problem. But most people, while they do like the taste of some not-nutritious foods, also want to be healthy. They value taking care of themselves (on some level) and even if health isn't a concern most of us care how we look. That means balancing out what we know is nutritious and keeps us healthy with some treats. It doesn't mean barring any food as outlawed, it just means more of some things and less of others.

If you don't like the outcomes you are getting, then you want to do something different going forward. When you know you’ll still be free tomorrow to have whatever you want, you may be shocked to find you don’t in fact want the whole quart of ice cream or the entire cake. Most of the time you’ll probably want healthy food that nourishes you and tastes good, that gives you energy and not indigestion. When you aren’t attributing an artificial value to sweets by restricting them, you can let yourself discover that you actually only want them every now and then. And then, a single portion enjoyed mindfully is satisfying. You’ll find that what you want most are meals that align with your values, and generally feeding yourself with care and love, not abusing your body by withholding food then gorging in shame, but letting yourself have some fun.

Think of a food right now that you know distances you from your goals, perhaps one that you have told yourself you “must not” or “cannot” eat. Could you instead accept that you are allowed to eat that food, yet you usually choose not to because you want your goals more? The action (not eating the food) is exactly the same as if you had just declared it off limits and stuck to it – but the mindset is different.

Catch yourself feeling restricted? Remind yourself you are free to choose, and simply evaluate what you want most. No one is in your way.

What you can do today:

Take responsibility for your food choices. Start with the past if you need to forgive yourself or stop blaming your parents – do it – or just start right now.

Rather than telling yourself that you “can’t” or “shouldn’t” eat certain things, acknowledge that you could in fact eat any of them, but you CHOOSE to eat more of some and less of others.

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